The present invention relates to health equipment for supporting the trunk of the human body and dragging his or her lumbar with the weight of the lower part of the body.
In general, a bed for lumbago treatment comprising a bed for letting the patient lie, a fixing belt for fixing the patient on the bed, ankle belts for attaching around the ankles of the patient, and a weight being hanged from the ankle belts is known. In a bed for lumbago treatment of this type, the crooked spinal column is straightened while dragging the lower part of the back with a weight to treat lumbago.
However, in a bed of this type, since the lower part of the back is dragged with the patient lain, the movement of the patient under treatment is limited, and the patient needs an assist from somebody else to attach the belt, thereby requiring significant labor costs. Although the dragging weight is adjusted based on the experience of the doctor or the physical therapist, it could be too heavy or too light, and thus it is troublesome to adjust. In addition, it has been necessary to allocate a significant space for installing the bed.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide health equipment that can overcome all the problems in the related art described above, in other words, to provide epoch-making health equipment that can stably secure the trunk of the human body in the seated posture and drag the lumbar by the weight of the lower part of the body.
The present invention provides health equipment for supporting the trunk of the user (patient) and dragging the lumbar with the weight of the lower part of his/her body, comprising an equipment body, a freely deformable trunk supporting means mounted to the equipment body for supporting the trunk of the user by holding it from both sides of the body, and a seat portion on which the user sits.
The equipment body is a member that constitute a base on which the trunk supporting means is mounted. The trunk supporting means is characterized in being freely deformable. The seat portion may be formed of, for example, a chair separate from the equipment body. The seat portion may be integrated with the equipment body and formed in a chair having a seat back as a whole.
In the apparatus for lumbago treatment of the present invention, lumbago treatment may be easily executed by the following procedure. The user sits on the seat portion and takes a seated posture, and then places the trunk supporting means around his/her trunk while keeping the seated posture. At this time, it is preferable that the height of the seating portion is adjusted so that the trunk of the patient is at almost the same level as the trunk supporting means. Since the trunk supporting means is freely deformable, it can tight fit and hold the trunk of the patient securely.
Then, the sitting portion is lowered or removed from the position where the user is sitting to allow the hip of the user to be suspended in the air, so that the lumbar is dragged by the weight of the lower part of the body to treat the lumbago. In this situation, since the trunk of the body is supported by the trunk supporting means, a dragging force is not applied to the bones other than the lumbar (for example the spin column), whereby only the lumbar area is dragged intensively, and effective lumbago treatment can be expected.
In order to adjust the height of the seating portion as described above, a mechanism to move the seating portion upward and downward must be provided. It is also possible to change the position of the user from the seated position to the position where the hip is suspended in the air by employing the structure wherein the seat portion is fixed and the trunk supporting portion is movable in the vertical direction. In other words, it is essential only that the trunk supporting means and the seat portion be relative movable in the vertical direction.
It is also possible to change the position of the user from the seated position to the position where the hip is suspended in the air by employing the structure in which the seat portion can be removed from the position where the user is sitting.
In the case where the trunk supporting means and the seat portion are constructed to be relatively movable in the vertical direction, a load applied to the lumbar can be adjusted as desired by adjusting the distance of movement. In other words, no load is applied to the user""s lumbar when he or she is sitting on the seat portion, and a load applied to his or her lumbar increases as the seat portion is lowered with respect to the hip of the user, and the load applied to his or her lumbar becomes a maximum when the hip of the user comes out of contact with the seat portion completely.
In order to make the load applied to the lumbar adjustable based on the objective data, weight detecting means for detecting the weight of the user applied to the seat portion may be provided. The load increases in inverse proportion to the weight of the user which is applied to the seat portion. Therefore, the load applied to the lumbar may be adjusted based on the weight data detected by the weight detecting means.
In the present invention of such an arrangement, the trunk supporting means may include a trunk supporting arm comprising a plurality of supporting members rotatably linked with respect to each other. In this arrangement, the trunk supporting means becomes freely deformable (in this structure, freely bendable), thereby creating the state where it fits around the trunk of the human and supports the same securely.
The trunk supporting arm is preferably formed so that the height is decreased in stages from the supporting member that supports the back of the human body to the supporting member that supports the belly of the human body. Therefore, the pressure applied onto the belly may be decreased.
The trunk supporting means may be constructed in such a manner that a pliant human body protecting member is mounted on the inner side of the trunk supporting arm, and a trunk supporting arm and the human body protecting member are covered by a covering member, and a non-slip member that is formed of a material being of a high contact resistance is attached on the inner surface of the covering member. In this arrangement, the trunk of the user may be softly enfolded by the human body protecting member, whereby the comfortable lumbago treatment may be carried out. In addition, the non-slip member may prevent the human body from being slipped with respect to the trunk supporting means, so that the proper state of supporting the trunk may be maintained.
In this arrangement, the human protecting member is preferably thicker at least in the area that supports the belly of the human body than that of other area in order to reduce the pressure applied to the belly of the human body.
By providing heating means for heating the trunk of the user in the trunk supporting means, the thermal treatment for the lower part of the back as well as dragging treatment of the lumbar may be carried out simultaneously, whereby further preferable effectiveness of treatment may be expected. By providing low frequency generating means that transmits low frequency to the trunk of the user in the trunk supporting means, low frequency treatment for the lower part of the back as well as dragging treatment of the lumbar may be carried out simultaneously.
In addition to the components described above, health equipment of the present invention may include leg hanging means that holds the legs of the user in hanged state. The leg hanging means comprises, for example, a support, a string body hanged from the supporting body via a pulley, a leg holder mounted to the lower end of the string body for holding the legs of the user, wherein the height of the leg holder may be adjusted by manipulating the string body.
The leg hanging means is used for raising the knees or the ankles of the user upward. By raising the knees or ankles upward with the trunk of the human supported by the trunk supporting means, and turning the hanging legs toward the right and left, a twisting action is applied to the lumbar so that further effective treatment may be carried out for the lumbar.
By constructing the leg hanging means such that the position thereof with respect to the user is adjustable in the front and back directions, the leg hanging means can be located at the proper position according to the length of the user""s legs. It is also possible to provide a pair of units each comprising a pulley, a string body, and a leg holder in order to hang the right leg and the left leg separately. In this arrangement, the various stimulations may be applied to the lumbar by hanging the respective legs at different levels or by moving the respective legs alternately.
In health equipment of the present invention, there may be provided leg exercising means for moving the legs of the user upward and downward. The leg exercising means may comprise, for example, a leg supporting portion installed forward of the equipment body for supporting the legs of the user, and a raising/lowering mechanism for raising and lowering the leg supporting portion.
The leg exercising means is used for applying a proper stimulation to the lumbar by allowing the legs of the user to move up and down in order to increase the effectiveness of treatment of the lumbar. For example, the lumbar may be adequately stimulated by placing the knees or ankles of the user on the leg supporting portion and moving the legs upward and downward by the raising/lowering mechanism.
By constructing the leg exercising means such that two leg supporting portions are provided and each leg supporting portion is moved upward and downward simultaneously or alternately by the raising/lowering mechanism, the left leg and the right leg may be moved up and down independently, so that the various stimulation may be applied to the lumbar.
Health equipment of the present invention may be provided with cervical vertebrae dragging means for dragging the cervical vertebrae with the chin of the user held. The cervical vertebrae dragging means may comprise, for example a supporting body, a string body hanged from the supporting body via a pulley, a chin holder attached to the end of the string body for holding chin of the user, and a weight applying mechanism for applying a tensile load to the proximal portion of the string body.
The cervical vertebrae dragging means is effective for treatment of troubles in relation to the cervical vertebrae, such as whiplash injury or stiff shoulder. After the user attaches the chin holder on his or her chin, his or her chin is adequately dragged up by the weight applying mechanism, whereby the cervical vertebrae is dragged.
Health equipment of the present invention may be provided with a shoulder hanging means for holding the shoulder of the user. The shoulder hanging means comprises a supporting body, a string body hanged from the supporting body, and a shoulder holder attached on the lower end of the string body.
The shoulder hanging means has a miscellaneous function to prevent the body of the user being supported by the trunk supporting means and suspended in the air from slipping down. In other words, holding the shoulder of the user by the shoulder holder and creating the state of being suspended by the string body reliably prevent the body of the user from slipping down.
Health equipment of the present invention may be provided with rehabilitation means for doing pulling exercise using the user""s arms, legs, and the upper part of the body. The rehabilitation means may be, f or example, provided with a supporting body, a string body hanged from the supporting body via a pulley, an operating portion attached to the end portion of the string, and a resistance mechanism for applying a proper resistance force against the pulling operation of the operating portion.
The rehabilitation means can be used for doing exercise for example of the arms against the moderate resistance force applied by the resistance mechanism by gripping the operating portion and repeating the pulling operation, which contributes to the recovery of the muscular strength.